Maxime Ingrao said the malware, called Autolycus, was present in at least eight Android apps that had more than three million downloads.
French security researcher Maxime Ingrao is warning Android users about a new family of malware that subscribes to premium services.
It said the malware, called Autolycus, was found in at least eight Android apps that had more than three million downloads.
The eight infected malware apps include those that caught the user’s attention, such as camera editors, keyboard themes, and video editors, he said.
In a series of tweets, he wrote: “Found a new family of malware that subscribes to premium services. 8 apps from June 2021, 2 apps always in the Play Store, + 3 million installs. No websites like #Joker but only HTTP requests. Let’s call it #Autolycos”
However, according to reports, it took Google six months to get these 8 apps, but their APK versions are still available online.
“It reads the JSON from the address in C2: 68.183.219.190/pER/y Then it executes the URL, for some steps it executes the URL in the remote browser and returns the result to get them from the site view # requests and be more discreet,” he added.
The researcher also added that these apps are widely promoted on social media through advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. “To promote the apps, the fraudsters created several Facebook pages and ran ads on Facebook and Instagram. For example, there were 74 ad campaigns for the Razer Keyboard & Theme malware,” he said in another tweet.
Here is the list of eight malware apps listed by Maxime Ingrao:
1. Vlog Star Video Editor (com.vlog.star.video.editor, 1 million downloads)
2. Creative 3D Launcher (app.launcher.creative3d, 1 million downloads)
3. Funny Camera (com.okcamera.funny, 500,000+ downloads)
4. Wow Beauty Camera (com.wowbeauty.camera, 100,000 downloads)
5. Gif Emoji Keyboard (com.gif.emoji.keyboard, 100,000 downloads)
6. Razer Keyboard & Theme (com.razer.keyboards, 10,000 downloads, not related to the gaming/tech company Razer)
7. Freeglow Camera 1.0.0 (com.glow.camera.open, 5,000 downloads)
8. Coco Camera v1.1 (com.toomore.cool.camera, 1,000 downloads)
